He didn’t see black clouds on the horizon. He didn’t see a storm brewing over the sea. He didn’t see rain or clouds forming on the mountain. He saw one small cloud, and back to Elijah singing, “I see a small cloud rising,” and that’s all Elijah needed to hear. He said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’”
Elijah, however, placed blame where blame belonged, saying, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals” (v. 18). The world is trying to blame the church for the world’s problems, but the world has allowed corrupt leaders to propagate corrupt policies that are inviting God’s judgment upon our nation and our world.
Satan is like a magician, using misdirection to distract us from what is really going on. He creates false narratives to get our attention over here when the real problem is right in front of our faces. There is a crisis in the world right now, and the entire drama of the campaign insanity between a president and a former president is just a sideshow. The real problem is the spiritual and demonic battle that is going on in high places. The clarion call to you today is not to be distracted by things on the periphery. As Elijah so powerfully put it, the real trouble in the kingdom was not him or even the lack of rain, the real problem was a corrupt king, and God was about to deal with that problem.
Doctor Luke did his homework, and the Holy Spirit ensured the validity of what he wrote.
We can have complete confidence in the texts of the Christian Bible. The events recorded in both Luke and Matthew’s Gospels, regarding the conception, birth, and nativity of Jesus Christ are absolutely true. God really did become one of us, putting on the robes of human flesh, yet without sin. God’s only begotten Son was Mary’s firstborn Son, and He was born in the little town of Bethlehem, just as the Prophet Micah said He would.
As the Christmas season begins, let’s look at eight prophecies concerning the birth and early years of the Messiah. We’ll look first at the prophecies in the Old Testament and then the New Testament fulfillment, remembering the astronomical improbability that these could have been fulfilled by chance alone. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of more than 300 prophecies.
In our text, we see a couple – Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth – who came from the priestly lineage of their forefather Aaron. They were righteous, they walked in God’s commands and ordinances, and they were blameless ... but they were barren. They had no children, but even with the prospect of children quickly fading, they never stopped serving the Lord, and they had never stopped praying for their miracle.
I’ve prayed the impossible prayer in my own life, and I’ve seen God move in situations where there seemed to be no hope. I believe that when we are walking in God’s will and serving God in His kingdom, we can ask for the impossible and expect the impossible when it aligns with His plans and purposes.
A prophet must listen to God, and a prophet must obey God. Elijah heard the word of the Lord, and Elijah obeyed the word of the Lord, even though, logically, it probably didn’t make sense to him. Verse 9 says, “So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks.” There she was, exactly as the Lord said she would be. This was the place, and there was the widow, so Elijah pressed ahead and obeyed God.
We know that God could have kept the water in the brook flowing, so why did the brook Cherith dry up? This may seem irrelevant to us; after all, not many of us will find ourselves in the wilderness dependent upon water from a brook. However, there are other kinds of streams in our lives that we depend upon, and sometimes God allows those streams to dry up as well.
